Daniel Neafsey

Daniel Neafsey leads the Malaria Genome Sequencing and Analysis Group at the Broad Institute. In this capacity, he oversees projects aimed at decoding and analyzing the genomes of the parasites that causes malaria as well as the mosquitoes that transit them to humans. Malaria carries a heavy global burden: It affects millions of people each year, killing more than 800,000, mostly children under the age of five living in sub-Saharan Africa.

Neafsey’s work, together with a network of collaborators stretching from the Broad Institute, the Harvard School of Public Health and other institutions worldwide, focuses on mapping the variation within and across both parasite and mosquito genomes. The knowledge flowing from this work offers a deeper understanding of the biology and evolution of malaria as well as the genomic basis of key traits that impact human health, such as drug and insecticide resistance, parasite virulence, and the effectiveness of vaccines.

Neafsey, who works in the Broad's Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program, first joined the Institute in 2004 after earning his Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University and a brief postdoctoral fellowship, also at Harvard.